With neural networks, AI can learn from experience; a programmer doesn't have to write prescriptions of how to behave within the code.

"One of these artificial neurons is to a real neuron a little bit like an airplane is to a bird. At a certain level of detail, they're very different, but the important point is that the do the same job, they both fly," Domingos says. "In the same way a neural network and a brain, they're very different. One is made of silicon, one if made of cells, but they do the same job, which is to learn from experience."

Like the human brain, neural networks can learn by association - the Skype translator gets better at translating German to English after has done done German to Chinese.

Beyond driving cars, Google is using neural networks to create surreal electronic paintings. The pattern recognition is so advanced that Google's trippy algorithms can see the silhouette of a tree and turn it into a building or find a leaf and make it look like a bird. Meanwhile, Microsoft's neural networks are better at recognizing images than humans.